Technology Reseller - v08

01732 759725 BULLETIN : TRENDS 6 More biometrics please Two thirds (68%) of Europeans would trust organisations more if they used biometrics for authentication, with 63% considering it more secure than traditional PIN and password authentication. In a survey of 3,500 European consumers by Unisys, security came out as the primary driver for the adoption of biometrics. Fingerprint scanning is the most highly rated method of authentication, cited by 61%, followed by iris scanning (41%). www.unisys.com London and Berlin in the firing line Berlin and London are the European capital cities most susceptible to cyber- attack via connected devices. According to Trend Micro’s Cities Exposed report, Berlin has more than 2.8 million ‘visible’ web- connected devices, such as webcams, routers, printers, private telephone systems and media recording tools. London has over 2.5 million exposed cyber assets, which works out at around three exposed devices for every ten people. www.trendmicro.com Can’t pay, won’t pay? More than half (54%) of UK businesses expect a data breach in the next 12 months, yet only 48% believe their business is financially prepared to cover any GDPR fines. Research by Proofpoint, Inc highlights a disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to GDPR readiness. While 77% of UK businesses expect to be fully compliant by May 2018, only 5% have the necessary data governance strategies in place. Adenike Cosgrove, EMEA Cybersecurity Strategist at Proofpoint, said: “It’s clear that when it comes to GDPR readiness, there is a disconnect. While the majority of UK businesses are bullish about their ability to meet the compliance deadline, our research shows that, for many, the basic requirements are not met. With data breaches becoming the new normal and the deadline to comply now less than six months away, the time is nigh to identify and protect all personal EU data.”. www.proofpoint.com Business leaders put tech at the top UK business leaders are demanding increased collaboration and a focus on technology to address the UK’s socio- economic challenges, claims Fujitsu in a new report, Tech in a Transforming Britain . More than three quarters (77%) of British leaders feel responsible for driving change in the UK and 56% say their sector has a responsibility to address socio-economic issues such as political turbulence and a multi-generational workforce. However, half (49%) say they are not doing enough to address these challenges. Two thirds (63%) of leaders believe technology is the key to overcoming the UK’s problems, with 86% saying it is already the primary driver in their decision- making, ahead of global economic uncertainty (79%) and Brexit (76%). www.fujitsu.com IT workers lack necessary skills  Only half (50%) of UK companies believe they have the right skills to address a cyberattack, research from IT jobs board CW Jobs reveals. Their doubts are supported by IT workers’ own assessments of their capabilities. One in four IT workers aren’t confident in their ability to handle a cyber security attack and only half (51%) have received cybersecurity training. CW Jobs suggests that the lack of cybersecurity skills may reflect a wider skills gaps facing the UK tech industry, as nearly a third of tech employees surveyed said they felt they were insufficiently trained in coding, cybersecurity and cloud migration. More than one third (38%) of employers said graduates entering the tech industry lack the necessary cybersecurity skills, with 75% believing universities should be responsible for ensuring tech employees have that training. www.cwjobs.co.uk Less than 10% of enterprises have achieved their digital transformation goals, according to Ovum’s latest ICT Enterprise Insights program, based on interviews with more than 6,300 enterprises. The most advanced organisations are in the telecoms and banking sectors, which have respective scores of 43.9% and 43% on the Ovum digital maturity index. The ICT Enterprise Insights program also examines the role of digital technologies on the path to digital transformation, including Big Data, blockchain, IoT, platform architecture/APIs, artificial intelligence (AI) and microservices. Its research shows that enterprises are most advanced in the adoption of Big Data and API-based architectures, with close to 40% of enterprises actively trialling or deploying these technologies and just under 50% considering or planning to do so in the future. Microservices and IoT are less advanced in terms of active deployment, but over 50% of enterprises are considering or planning to deploy them in the future. While AI and blockchain are much discussed, their use for the purposes of digital transformation is much less developed.  https://ovum.informa.com Telecoms and banking sectors most advanced in digital transformation REPORT proofpoint.com Technology ina transformingBritain 1 Technology ina transforming Britain Bring on the machines The majority of UK IT decision-makers (80%) believe machine-to-people interactions will positively transform the customer experience, research from Mitel reveals. Almost three quarters (73%) plan to tie together devices, emerging technologies and communications and collaboration capabilities within two years to enable such interactions. Four out of 10 expect to increase revenue by doing so. www.mitel.co.uk Berlin London Madrid Amsterdam Athens Oslo Paris Lisbon Stockholm Rome Number of exposed cyber assets in Western European capitals 2,806,956 2,528,386 1,365,736 948,516 543,425 432,870 416,733 409,038 405,810 296,786